Sweet Potato Spinach Bake

The twenty dinners. I need to tell you about the twenty dinners, baby, because this was the hardest and best thing I've done since I retired.

Monday: shopping. Two turkeys (sixteen pounds each), ten pounds of sweet potatoes, five pounds of butter, cornmeal, flour, sugar, cream, cheese, collard greens enough to fill the bathtub. I filled the car. Twice. The cashier at Publix looked at my cart and said, "Are you feeding an army?" I said, "I'm feeding twenty people who don't have an army." She gave me a discount. Savannah understands.

Tuesday: prep. Brined the turkeys. Made the cornbread for the dressing. Washed the greens. Peeled the sweet potatoes. Assembled the mac and cheese — twenty individual portions in aluminum pans. The kitchen was a disaster. Every surface was covered. The counters, the table, the top of the dryer. I didn't care. War is messy.

Wednesday: cooking day. Turkeys in at four a.m. Dressing in at eight. Greens on the stove at nine. Sweet potato pies — four of them — out of the oven at noon. Rolls at two. By four o'clock, the kitchen smelled like Thanksgiving multiplied by twenty, and I was standing in the middle of it with my apron covered in flour and my feet screaming and my heart full.

Thursday morning: delivery. Kayla came to help — she drove, I directed. Twenty stops. Twenty porches. Twenty aluminum pans sealed with foil and labeled: "From Miss Dot at First African Baptist — Happy Thanksgiving." Some of the people I knew. Some I'd never met. One woman, eighty-two, opened the door before I'd finished ringing the bell. She said, "I've been waiting for you." I said, "I'm sorry I'm late." She said, "You're right on time."

I came home at noon. I ate my own Thanksgiving dinner at the table. Earl's plate was set. The turkey was good. Twenty dinners delivered. Twenty people fed. I said grace alone: "Lord, thank you for twenty porches and twenty doorbells and twenty reasons to get up at four a.m." Then I fell asleep in my chair and didn't wake up until dark.

Now go on and feed somebody.

People always ask me which dish held up best in those aluminum pans — which one I’d make again for twenty. Sweet potatoes. Every single time. I peeled ten pounds of them that Tuesday with my feet already tired, and I’ll tell you, there is something about a sweet potato layered with good greens and a little cheese that just carries warmth from the oven all the way to a stranger’s porch. This bake is what I’d put on your table if I could — simple enough to multiply, good enough to remember.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
10 oz fresh baby spinach
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup shredded Gruyère or mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and set aside.
Wilt the spinach. Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the spinach in batches, stirring until fully wilted, about 3–4 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
Layer the bake. Arrange half of the sweet potato slices in an overlapping single layer across the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Spread the wilted spinach evenly over the sweet potatoes. Arrange the remaining sweet potato slices in a layer on top.
Add cream and cheese. Pour the heavy cream evenly over the layered sweet potatoes. Sprinkle the shredded Gruyère across the top, then finish with the grated Parmesan. Season the surface with the remaining salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Bake covered. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are just tender when pierced with a fork.
Brown the top. Remove the foil and continue baking for 12–15 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbling at the edges. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sweet Potato Spinach Bake — Miss Dot’s Thanksgiving Table, All Twenty of Them